Do you Read?

I tend to read during my commute to and from the office each day, I find it relaxing. I'm not sure what got into my husband the last time he took the children to the bookstore but he signed up for the Borders Bookstore Rewards program with MY email address. Well, this may work to your benefit, too, so it may not be all that bad. They are having a 30% off promotion if you spend more than $10. Here's the link for the in-store coupon:

http://www.bordersmedia.com/coup/coupon_30w100826.asp?cmpid=SL_20080828_REW

And if you have a Borders Rewards membership you can also get 40% off of all Hardcover Bestsellers, here's the link:

http://www.borders.com/online/store/ListView_bordersbestsellers?cmpid=SL_20080828_REW

Have fun reading!

Is that your keys in your pocket or...

I went out a couple mornings ago to get a bagel for breakfast and as I was returning to my office, in the financial district of a major city, mind you, I approach a man in business attire who is walking toward me and fervently rattling his keys, or something, in his pocket. And, yes, I did stare! Now, I am surely giving him the benefit of the doubt now but at the time I was peering around for the hidden cameras that were capturing the expressions of women, and others, like me. I really do wish I had my video camera so I could post it and we could have a vote but, of course, I rarely have it aimed and ready when these odd things happen to me.

So, the moral of the story is that if you are male and a pocket flipper you should remove all temptations from your pockets. And ladies, well, please help out the men in your lives.

Maybe I'll come out with a new fad of front pockets that are decorative in nature only...

A Real Vacation

Last week we took a vacation, just my husband, the children and me. We visited with my husband's family and even though we did so much it really felt like a vacation.

There was no worry about work for me, my husband had no calls from work (and that is a miracle!), my mother-in-law provided all meals and hospitality to boot. We had to think about nothing except what we were going to do for the day and we did a lot. We guessed about when we would be back and my mother-in-law did not pressure us for anything exact. We phoned her when we had a better idea of when we would return and she had a meal on the table as we walked through the door.

We actually did more in this trip than I had done in all my previous trips to my husband's family's hometown of Seattle. Despite the rainy weather in August(!) we went to Seattle Center, Pike Place Market, took the ferry to Bainbridge Island, went to a Mariner's baseball game (wow did that stadium cost some dough?), the Museum of Flight where we boarded the first "Air Force One" and a Concorde bound for no where, the University of Washington (the U Dub, to the locals), and Boehm's chocolate factory and even took the tour which was a bargain at $3 each. What we did not get to was take the Victoria Clipper to the San Juan Islands with the whale watching add on because the boat was broken, so that's the day we went to Bainbridge instead. That's okay though because we will have a new experience to have the next time, oh, and the Space Needle, too, we promised the children next time we would go up in the Space Needle. This time since it was rainy and overcast we did not see the point given that we will go back, especially since it was so relaxing despite all the running around.

I have to say this is the first vacation we have been on with the children that we did not need a vacation to recover from our vacation. On Monday it was back to work and trying to get back into the routine...

Three Ring Circus

I thought I would follow up the previous circus post....



We went to the circus and wow is it different than I remember. It has much more of a Cirque de Soleil feel to it now than when I was a child. There was a little story line about the ring master constantly losing his hat at the mercy of the clown. The hat had quite a journey through the circus tent. Along the way it met with several of the usual circus acts, the motorcycle riding on the wire, the lion tamer act, the trapeze artists, and a few new acts, at least new to me. Then finally the celebration at the end when the hat returns to its rightful owner.



We did not buy the children any treats, a snow cone was $9.00, yes, that's right. It did come in a souvenir cup but we thought that was outrageously high. We did not look at any other goodies.



I have to say that although the circus was quite entertaining for the kids on a "how did they do that?" level, I strongly favor the circus for adults, Cirque de Soleil.

100 Pushups?

By now you probably know that I work out often for release of the stress of everyday life. Today, I ran across a website that promises anyone can attain the goal of completing 100 push ups without a any rest in between sets. Check it out, I'm tempted to try it myself so look for my follow up post in a few weeks.

Life's A Circus

That circus song, you know the little catchy tune, keeps swirling around in my head. I'm not sure how to get rid of it although I've tried.

We are scheduled to take the children to the the circus and I am pretty excited because I have not been there since I went with my grandparents when I was small. We were lucky enough to get group rate tickets. I say lucky because I checked the regular prices and the ringside seats go for around $200 each seat. Wow, now that set me in a tail spin. That would be $800 for a family of four, and it cannot be longer than a couple hours of entertainment.

There are not many tickets I would feel comfortable spending that much money for and the circus is not one of them. I think I'd rather take the family away for the weekend somewhere. It might cost a little more than $800 but it would be a weekend's worth of entertainment, not an hour or two!

Travels with Charlies

We are going away for a few days and the children are old enough to help with packing but they still need some direction. So before we leave I tell them to get all their clothes out for how ever many days we will be gone. I have them pack an outfit with socks and underwear all in one stack and they should have as many stacks as days plus how ever many jammies they need.

My daughter is right on, I walk into her room and she has each outfit, including socks and underwear, in several little stacks, all totalling the number of stacks that I dictated. I take the stacks of my daughter's clothes and place them directly into the suitcase.

I move into my son, Max's, room and he, on the other hand, has one gigantic wad of clothing in the center of the floor. I look at Max and ask him if he'd like his clothes packed in the suitcase that way. He looks at me with that almost grin that he gets when he is not being fully truthful and says, "Yes." I explain that we will be away for a while and there is no way for me to tell if he has enough clothing, socks and underwear. He laughs, looks up from his DS for a second, or is it a nano-second, and says, "So?" My other concern is that sometimes the outfits don't match. Actually, matchy match is not that important to me but I do not want to be party to the clash that often happens (not the band but the look) if outfits are not at least passed over with a mother's eye.

I would let it slide but I'm sure that you know how it all becomes your fault when things do not work out and cause an uncomfortable situation. And I, for one, do not want to be sharing a car with a little boy who has to wear the same pair of underwear all week long! So I make him divide the wad into stacks, we change a few things around and pack up.

They are both getting a little better about doing a few things to help with getting ready for a trip. When mommy and daddy both work, we can use all the help we can get.